these violent delights have violent ends
by Screaming Faeries
Summary: Dark!AU for CrimsonGoldQueen. Tom finds an unsuspecting diary in a Muggle store, and his life takes an unexpected turn.


**Written for CrimsonGoldQueen for her birthday! Happy Birthday Em!**

 **AN:** Dark!AU. OOC Ginny and Tom, because of Dark!AU, please take that into consideration!

 **Word Count:** 1,257

* * *

oOo

' _My name is Tom Marvolo Riddle.'_

' _Hello, Tom Marvolo Riddle. My name is Ginevra Weasley.'_

oOo

Tom wasn't really afraid when the diary he purchased from the Muggle bookstore started speaking back to him. He just assumed that the mundane object had become intertwined with the magic that flowed readily through Hogwarts, and therefore became a magical object itself.

Naturally, he didn't tell anyone. He didn't really have many friends anyway, at least none that he cared to share the secret with. Nobody would believe that he hadn't charmed the diary himself, and in all honesty…he wanted to keep Ginevra for himself.

He didn't know who she was, just that her handwriting was fluid and feminine and her personality seemed clever and witty. She was always there, at the flick of his quill, able to provide him an ear to listen or a word or two of advice.

oOo

' _Ginevra…you never tell me about yourself.'_

' _What would you like to know?'_

' _Who are you? Why are you in my diary?'_

oOo

The truth was, this wasn't Tom's diary at all. It once belonged to Ginevra, many years before Tom ever stumbled across it. She had compressed her memory inside its pages, hoping, dreaming and praying that someone just like Tom would pick it up.

Someone as easily seduced by the darkness as Tom…wouldn't yet like to admit.

oOo

' _Let me show you what happened to me.'_

oOo

The pages stirred wildly by themselves, flipping through the book until they reached the centrefold. A small ink blot was in the corner of the page, and it grew and grew, until it was no longer a black dot anymore, but a kind of window into the book. Tom lifted the diary to his face, pressing his eye to the blot, peering into what appeared to be…

Before he could make out the location, he had the strangest sensation of being sucked inside a vortex, similar to using the Floo Network. He tumbled forwards into the diary, landing in a ghostly, elegant manner, in a secluded stairwell of Hogwarts.

"Grindelwald killed my brother."

The voice was strangely high and a little strangled. Tom turned to face a girl about his age, around sixteen, wearing Gryffindor robes, with her red hair hanging loosely around her shoulders. Her eyes sparkled with tears, and her face was dashed with pain. Tom realised almost instantly, that he was finally looking into the face of Ginevra Weasley.

There was another Gryffindor at the bottom of the stairs ahead of her, with scruffy black hair and wire-framed glasses. "You need to grieve, Ginny. You're having crazy thoughts."

"He's ruined my family, Harry," Ginevra whispered. She was truly broken. "My parents are divorcing. Ronald and Percy have both left the Burrow. Charlie and Bill have gone back to separate sides of the world, and George—" her voice cracked. "I'm afraid George will do something…stupid."

"Revenge is not the way." Harry gave her one last, lingering look, and then turned to walk away, leaving Ginevra in the stairwell. She crumbled to the steps, tears spilling down her freckled cheeks, completely alone.

Tom wanted nothing more than to reach out and put his hand on Ginevra's shoulder; to comfort her the way she had comforted him through the pages of her diary, but this was just a memory. As he watched her sad, quivering frame, he was sucked back through the pages of the diary, landing back in his bed with a crash.

After making sure he hadn't woken any of his dormmates, he turned back to the diary.

oOo

' _Grindelwald is dead, Ginevra. He died in prison years ago.'_

' _His followers still live. His friends still live. They need to learn of my pain; of my family's pain. Don't you want to help me, Tom?'_

' _Of course. I'll always help you.'_

oOo

It was a kind of spell that Tom had never heard of, and he knew it was dark magic. But if anything, the lure of the magic only excited him.

He was in the Room of Requirement, led there by Ginevra's instructions, laid on his back on the withered carpet. He had only thought about needing an empty room, and that was exactly what he got.

Tom didn't know exactly what Ginevra did, but as soon as the book lay open on his chest, he began to feel the energy withering away from his body. He put up with it for as long as he could, and then attempted to sit up and close the book, afraid that it was going to kill him.

But the book was no longer there. Standing in place of it was a woman; a tall, slender figure with blood-red hair that was a vivid slash against the dark backdrop of the Room of Requirement. Her skin was deathly pale, her eyes were crimson, and she was swathed in black robes.

Though she looked nothing like her memory self, Tom knew this was Ginevra Weasley. Her eyes fell on him, and she advanced towards him, moving fluidly, like she was made of water.

"Poor, naive Tom," she spoke in that high pitched voice again, but it sounded different—colder, somehow. "It was so easy to convince you that I was the victim."

"You weren't?" Tom murmured, his eyes wide.

"Grindelwald _did_ kill," she replied. "But not Fred. There was only one way to end the reign of Grindelwald, and that was by becoming _bigger_ and _darker_ than him. I could only do that by committing a truly heinous act, one that even Grindelwald hadn't committed."

"You killed your brother?" Tom whispered.

"By doing so, I split my soul, and became stronger and able to live longer," Ginny spoke, matter-of-factly. "But Grindelwald was still able to overpower me. He trapped me in this diary, casting it out into the Muggle world, where he was sure no wizard or witch would ever find it. Until you came along."

"Are you going to kill me?"

A smirk passed across Ginevra's lips. "Not unless you wish to join me."

Tom looked up at Ginny, through hazy eyes. Though she was terrifying and dark and menacing, she was truly beautiful. Her once-sparkling eyes were hollow and empty, but Tom was sure he could see a glimmer of a person behind them. "I'll always help you," he murmured, repeating the words he had said once to her in the diary.

"Then you don't need to die." As she spoke, the air around Tom suddenly felt much less heavy, and he was able to suck in a deep breath gratefully. Her hands closed around his, her skin freezing cold, and she pulled him to his feet.

He wasn't sure how she was alive, or if she really _was_ alive, but he realised he didn't care. Together, they were going to do great things.


End file.
